Dr. Ella Bell and Gwyneth Paltrow speak about the advantages of diverse female networks (Photo by ... [+]
Actress and Goop founder and CEO, Gwyneth Paltrow, joined forces with Dartmouth business professor Ella Bell to unveil a key ingredient to women's success at the MAKERS Conference in Los Angeles last week. The duo highlighted the transformative power of women building networks with one another, suggesting that the right connections could be a game-changer. However, making those connections may take getting out of your comfort zone.
The duo stressed the value of establishing a network with a diverse range of individuals, underscoring that forging bonds with those who differ from ourselves is crucial for broadening our perspectives and driving success. “The more diverse the people are around you, who you love, and who can actually have real conversations with you and push back and broaden your mind, the better,” Paltrow explained. The actress described her inner circle as a mix of relationships that cut across age, race, and beliefs. She added, “I have Republican friends—my husband freaks out and won't have dinner with them—but I think it's so important to be in a constant process of learning.”
Paltrow also urged individuals of influence to actively seek inclusivity. “If you're the person who has the perceived stature, it's your responsibility to go and build a bridge and to invite someone into your circle.”
Similarly, Bell encouraged women to get out of their comfort zones and seek out what she calls new hives. “Take time to learn about other people's universes. And don't be intimidated by it. Because how you see them—I guarantee that's not how they see themselves. Connect to other hives that don't look like yours. Does that make you uncomfortable? Go do it. It's growth. It's learning. It's how we make change. And it's how we will form powerful female unions,” she told the audience.
As an example of branching out, Bell described how she met Paltrow at a virtual meeting where Bell was a featured speaker. Despite feeling awestruck by the Academy Award recipient, Bell pushed past her apprehension and later reached out to Paltrow to invite the actress to contribute a blurb for Bell’s new book. Their friendship has endured ever since.
The power of diverse connection among women is also backed by other academic research. An investigation of which MBA students landed jobs with the highest authority and pay revealed an intriguing gender difference. While it's essential for all MBA graduates to cultivate a broad network that spans different student groups, the study highlighted an additional factor for women. The women also needed to have an inner circle of close female contacts in order to secure top positions.
Men in the study had inner circles, too, but the gender composition of their inner circles was not related to their job placement. One of the study’s authors, Brian Uzzi, explained in the Harvard Business Review, “Because women seeking positions of executive leadership often face cultural and political hurdles that men typically do not, they benefit from an inner circle of close female contacts that can share private information about things like an organization’s attitudes toward female leaders, which helps strengthen women’s job search, interviewing, and negotiation strategies.”
Most importantly, the women’s success depended on having a specific type of inner circle. Uzzi explained, “The best inner circles for women were those in which the women were closely connected to each other but had minimal contacts in common.” In other words, as Bell says, women needed close friends in other hives.
According to Bell, at this point in history, where women are fighting for equal pay and reproductive rights, connections outside our hives are even more critical. She explains, “The reality of it is, we need to come together and cross-pollinate our hives because you're in places that I'm not going to be, and that's fine. But I'm also in places that you're not going to be. How can we influence? How can we strategize to make good trouble and to make significant change? We can't stay in our hives because they're too small for change.”
